It was our turn to host the weekly playdate at our home, and I was pretty nervous about it, because it was the first time we were hosting a group of children at our place since we came back from Adelaide, and I didn’t know how Noah would deal with it. I did my best to prep him for it, by telling him on a few separate occasions that his friends would be coming over, and requested that he share his toys with them.
On the morning itself, Noah decided to wake up extra early, which meant I had less time to prepare for our guests. Thank goodness I made the overnight oats the night before, so there was one less thing to be done. When his friends arrived, Noah seemed a little intimidated initially, and kept running to me, and asking to be carried. Thankfully, this is a group that he is familiar with, so after a while, the clinginess stopped. In fact, he enjoyed their company so much that he got teary when they had to leave, and said, “Don’t go. Don’t go.” a few times.
We started off with the usual Welcome song, followed by the Colours song, to revise the colours they’ve learnt so far. Mummy L then introduced a new colour, pink, as well as a new shape, star, to the group.
Pink!
Hello orange, hello pink!
Star!
For story-time, I read To the Rescue!* and Let’s Go to Work!* and got the children to pull out the tabs, to see what colours the vehicles were. I like that the books are interactive, and help to keep the children engaged. Noah likes reading these two books with me, and can usually identify the colours accurately.
For craft, I prepared three different shapes (square, triangle, and rectangle) for the children. It was actually very easy to make, as I printed out some squares (you can download my Squares document, if you don’t want to make your own), laminated the sheets, cut the squares out, and cut some squares diagonally or horizontally to make triangles and rectangles. The children were then given some 3M Scotch® Expressions tapes to decorate the different shapes. I feel that the tapes are very good for helping young children to develop their fine motor skills, as I can see that Noah is still trying to learn how to paste the strips of tape down properly.
Crafting with the tapes
Snack time was a simple serving of biscuits and blueberries, and the children ate quickly, so that they could play with the many toys we had in our living room. I realised that the toys were a huge distraction, so I’ll probably hide them all in the room next time, instead of leaving them in the living room.
Snacking quickly
Mummy J then got the children to put away some toys, before reading a Chinese book that reinforced the concept of cleaning up after playing. We also sang the same Chinese song from last week’s session, and Noah enjoyed dancing to it.
Chinese story time
As the mums all noticed that the children seemed bored of the previous Practical Life stations, Mummy C changed the stations this week. The kids had to sort the given pieces by either shape or colour, depending on what they got. Noah needed a lot of encouragement to complete both stations, as he lost patience rather easily with it, and kept trying to pour all the pieces into one bowl after a while.
Sorting by colour
Sorting by shape
Because we were indoors for this session, our Big Muscles Movement activity was conducted in the living room. The children were asked to pick out a particular shape each time they got to the station, then bring it back, and place it onto the corresponding plate.
Trying to find a triangle
Triangle!
Circle!
We ended the session with ‘If You’re Happy and You Know It’, ‘He’s Able’, and the Goodbye song. Mummy S introduced two new actions for the first song, and Noah seemed quite amused by the variations (‘touch your nose’ and ‘give a high-five’).
Clap your hands
Shout hooray!
We also took a ‘class photo’ of the children, and I think we’ll make a point to take a group photo of them after every session, so we can watch them grow!
Cuteness overload
*This is an affiliate link, which means that if you buy the book after clicking on this link, a few cents from this sale goes to Noah’s book fund, at absolutely no cost to you.
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